Roasted Banana and Almond Smoothie

Here is a little conversation between me and my mom last week:

Me: Here, I made you something to drink.
Mom: This is excellent. What is this? Is this a milkshake?
Me: No, it’s not a milkshake. It’s a smoothie.
Mom: Are you sure this isn’t a milkshake?
Me: Yes, I’m sure. It’s a Roasted Banana and Almond Smoothie. I just invented it.
Mom: Liz, you know I can’t have ice cream.
Me: Mom, it’s not a milkshake. There isn’t any ice cream! It’s vegan!
Mom: I don’t believe you.
Me: {insert: excessive eye rolling and sighing}.

So you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this boring story. Well, it’s because I want you to know that I’m not exaggerating when I say this smoothie taste just like a milkshake. For reals. It’s thick, sweet, frosty and well, just like a milkshake.

My secret: roasted bananas. Yup. We are coaxing as much fabulousness out of these bananas as possible by sending them into the oven with a little brown sugar on top. Oh yeah.

I was pretty excited when I first decided to do this. But then I had an “oh s**t” moment when I realized the bananas wouldn’t be frozen anymore. Because I’m a firm believer that a frozen banana (or other frozen fruit) is essential to making a really thick smoothie. So to make up for my warm bananas (OK, I giggled when I wrote that), I decided to make some ice cubes out of almond milk. This gives a wonderfully thick consistency to the smoothie (kind of like a milkshake!), without watering it down. Totally winning.

This Roasted Banana and Almond Smoothie does take more time and pre-planning than your typical dump-everything-into-a-blender-and-hit-the-button smoothie. But I think the results are definitely worth it.

AND don’t go away yet! Because today I’ve teamed up with some of my blogging friends to sponsor a $400 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!!! Think of all the awesome stuff you could buy! To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below (scroll down past the recipe) to follow Floating Kitchen on Pinterest and Instagram. And the more bloggers you follow, the greater your chances of winning. Make sure to get your entries in by March 9, 2015. Update: This giveaway has ended and a winner has been chosen. Thank you for participating! This giveaway was sponsored by myself and some other fabulous bloggers and was in no way affiliated with Amazon.com.

Cheers,

Liz

Roasted Banana and Almond Smoothie

Serves 2

Ingredients

About 2 cups unsweetened almond milk, divided

2 medium bananas, peeled

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon chia seeds

2 dates, pitted and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons almond butter

Extra banana slices and almonds for garnish, if desired

Instructions

Make the almond milk ice cubes. Using about 1 cup of the almond milk, fill the wells of an ice cube tray (you’ll only need about 4-6 ice cubes for this recipe). Freeze until solid.

Roast the bananas. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the peeled bananas on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, then sprinkle with the brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Roast the bananas in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Remove and set aside until they are completely cooled.

Meanwhile, add the chia seeds, chopped dates and 1 cup of the almond milk to your blender. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. Then add the almond butter, cooled bananas (making sure to scrape in any of the brown sugar) and 4-6 ice cubes. Blend on high until smooth.

Pour into a glasses. Garnish with fresh banana slices and sliced almonds, if desired. Enjoy immediately.

I love that you made this fab milkshake errr…super healthy and delicious smoothie for your mom! Moms are the best to cook/blend for. I’m seriously making this milkshake errr smoothie for dessert tonight. Girl’s taking herself on a magical date, and all magical dates need to end with warm bananas! 😀 Have a great weekend!

I would have been with your mom and thought there had to be ice cream in this for sure. It looks just like a milkshake! So smart to roast the bananas, and even smarter to do almond milk ice cubes! Can’t wait to make this!

You’re always comin up with something brilliant! Love this, Liz and would have never thought to roast bananas OR freezing almond milk! Delicious! Thank you for this Liz!

The convo with your Ma! BaHahhhaaaaa!! Last summer I made a chocolate green smoothie every morning while my Ma was visiting… my Ma had never seen or heard (vitamix) anything like it! But she ended up calling it sludge and was apathetic towards the taste (I think green smoothies can sometimes be an acquired taste)! Your Mom loved it, right?

I love this idea! I always add frozen bananas to my smoothie because you’re right, It’s key for texture or at least I thought it was before you had the genius idea to make almond milk ice cubes. PS- Your mom sounds awesome! So funny that she didn’t believe you.

Hi Jayden. The dates sweetened the smoothie (and also provide other nutrients and fiber). If you leave them out, you might want to add something else to sweeten it, like a small amount of agave or maple syrup.

So I tried these and they were SO GOOD OMG. I have a hard time finding dessert recipes that are vegan and without chocolate, and sometimes they don’t turn out so well either, but these were just fabulous. My whole family loved them! Now we’re going to get some of those retro milkshake glasses so we can enjoy your wonderful recipe in style 🙂